Burn Zombie Burn Review

Burn Zombie Burn is a downloadable PSN title that pits you against wave after wave of zombies. With various, sometimes ridiculous but awesome weapons, and high replay value, Burn Zombie Burn is a decent title worth checking out. Continue for the full review.

Gameplay

Burn Zombie Burn seemed shallow upon my first time playing. After later running through the tutorial, I realized I wasn’t playing the game “properly” and discovered it is actually fairly deep. There is an Arcade mode that takes you through level by level and there are also challenge modes such as keeping your girlfriend alive.

The game works in that waves of zombies appear that you must continue to clear out. As you kill each zombie, you rack up points. With your points, you can achieve a bronze, silver, or gold trophy for the level. As it is, a bronze can be extremely difficult in some of the levels. As you kill waves of zombies, new waves appear along with better weapons with which to kill them. Now, where the game gets interesting is in reference to the Burn in the title. By pressing R2 you pull out a torch with which you can light zombies on fire. The more zombies that are on screen burning at any time, the higher your score multiplier. This becomes a balancing act as when zombies are on fire, they run at you faster, making it harder to survive. Also, if on fire, they will drop special powerups such as upgraded tnt. Non-burning zombies can drop health pickups, ammo, and tnt.

Each level in the game is virtually the same which is somewhat disappointing. There is a woods level, a graveyard, a drive-in, etc. Really only the last level is one that looks much different from the others. Each level also has points where you could get trapped or cornered making you think before you go somewhere.

Where Burn Zombie Burn shines is it’s weapon selection. You’ll start with a pistol and quickly unlock an uzi, a shotgun, a baseball bat, and a chainsaw. As you beat more and more waves, you’ll encounter a gattling gun, a lawnmower (my personal favorite), and a brain-sucker (it’s as cool as it sounds). The weapons are scattered throughout the level, sometimes forcing you to fight through a wave of enemies to get to a stronger weapon. There are also secondary weapons that temporarily replace your torch such as a flamethrower and a ray gun that causes your enemies to dance (yes, that is correct).

Burn Baby...urrrr...Zombie Burn!

Graphics/Audio

The graphics are nothing to write home about but are not bad by any means. Most levels are pretty dark and dreary and do a decent job of capturing a zombie attack.

The soundtrack is another strongsuit in this game. The music tracks are a collection of surf-rockabilly type songs with a couple even being more punk rock. I really enjoyed the music in each stage.

The Impossible Last Level

Replay Value

What makes Burn Zombie Burn worth checking out is the replay value. As of writing this, I still have not beaten the last level (exploders keep taking out my burning enemies, killing my multiplier). In addition, I have not gotten any better than a bronze trophy, and there are weapons I haven’t even seen yet. In addition, trophies are well done, with MANY requiring you to put a lot of time into the game to achieve them.

Conclusion

Is Burn Zombie Burn a groundbreaking game? No, not at all. Is it fun? For the most part, yes. Burn Zombie Burn doesn’t really bring anything new to the table and the level design can be a tad boring, but it makes up for this with wacky weapons and gameplay that forces you to balance the risk/reward system. If you need a game to play until the AAA titles start hitting in a few months, then I recommend checking this title out.